


Status

by xxxbookaholic



Category: A3! (Video Game)
Genre: Canon Backstory, Canon Compliant, Character Analysis, Character Study, F/F, Gen, How Do I Tag, Semi-Canon Backstory, but it isn't explicit, god-za trio, he has two moms, i love haruto fuck off, mentioned Homophobia, please love him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-24
Updated: 2020-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:28:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25491628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xxxbookaholic/pseuds/xxxbookaholic
Summary: Respect was based on status. That was what Genta had learned at a young age.
Relationships: Haruto Asuka & Madoka Ikaruga & Shifuto (A3!), Haruto Asuka & unnamed parents
Kudos: 26





	Status

**Author's Note:**

> Recently, I’ve absolutely fallen in love with Haruto Asuka, so I finally decided to write something about him. This is pretty much like a character analysis. I’ll probably make another fic about him at a later date, as well. If you enjoy the fic, or have any advice, please comment! I thrive off of validation from strangers on the internet.

Respect was based on status. That was what Genta had learned at a young age.

He grew up in a poor town, with discriminatory neighbors and no money. Even when he was just a child, he understood how hard it was on his parents to have to raise a kid in those circumstances.

Before he’d even attended kindergarten, he had seen first-hand the way people looked down upon his family. They glared and grimaced at the raggedy clothes and spare bits of change.

One night, when Genta was seven years old and getting under his tiny comforter, he asked his mom why nobody liked them.

His mom had stared down at him with a sad, sad look on her face. After a few moments of silence, filled only by their breathing and the swirling fan in the corner of their one-room apartment, she spoke. “They just don’t understand why we live the way we do,” she had whispered, stroking Genta’s hair.

Genta had a thousand questions. _Why do we live the way we do, why am I the only kid with two moms, why do we only have two meals a day, why is the way we live so wrong?_ But seeing his mom’s sorrowful eyes, he had kept his mouth shut.

Months passed after that and he continued to go through the motions of his day. Wake up, help his ma with breakfast, go to school, avoid his peer’s questioning eyes, go home, eat the leftovers from breakfast, go to sleep. Every Monday, he’d go with his mom and ma to the store. Those days were the worst. It was filled with disapproving glares, disgusted scowls, and discriminate shoves.

Saturdays were his favorite days. Genta, his mom, and his ma would huddle around their tiny TV and watch a movie together.

The first time he became interested in acting was when he watched _Into The Woods_. He was thirteen at the time, and by then, he understood why his family was treated with such disrespect. Ignorance. The actors in the movie brought the story to life in a way that he’d never seen before. All of the struggles in his life seemed to melt away as he watched.

When they finished the movie, he stayed up for just a little bit longer, searching up the actors on his outdated phone.

They were all popular and respected; none of them were hated for simply existing, none of them had to pray that they wouldn’t get turned away at the grocery store each Monday, and none of them had to scrounge for part-time jobs that would allow people like them to work.

From then on, Genta worked hard each day. He’d pick up magazines on his way to the convenience store every Tuesday to look up the latest news, he would act out the lines in his school books with his ma, and he would watch every street act that he could. Over time, he even managed to stop himself from drifting into his Kansai dialect every time he spoke.

When he was sixteen, his ma died. It was a dark year for him and his mom. They didn’t have the money for a proper funeral, so they just cremated her body and had a mini funeral together.

After that, Genta continued to work on his acting. By eighteen, he had packed his bags, wished his mom well, and then moved to Tokyo. Suppressing his Kansai dialect became a constant for him. In the beginning of his stay, he spent an extensive amount of time simply doing part-time jobs and street acts. With every form he turned in, he wrote his name down as ‘Haruto’ rather than Genta. It was a like a fresh start; nobody knew who he was or where he was from.

It was actually one of his street acts that gave him the opportunity to join a troupe. He had seen a few of God-Za’s plays, and really looked up to them, but the auditions hadn’t been open the whole time he’d been in Tokyo.

One Sunday morning, when he was doing a street act based on _Hairspray_ , a man who he soon came to know as ‘Reni’ stopped to watch.

For the next few days, Reni would stop to watch all of Haruto’s street acts. A week later, Reni actually stayed to talk.

“ _What troupe are you from_?” Reni had asked. He gave off an aura of grace and elegance; it was both alluring and terrifying.

Haruto had told him that he wasn’t apart of any troupe, and Reni had offered to hold an audition for him.

The answer came easily. Acting in a troupe like God-Za was all Haruto wanted anymore; fame was status, and status meant respect.

The next day, Haruto didn’t do a street act.

The day after that, Haruto was doing a street act with the top actor of God-Za.

At the time, the top actor was a man known to the public as Leorio. He was talented and godly, everything that Haruto wanted to be.

When Haruto was twenty, though, Leorio retired and left the top actor spot open for the taking.

The next person to take it was Haruto.

He worked hard each day, and was confident in his abilities as both an actor and a leader. Still, though, being the top actor meant living in constant fear that his role could be swept away from him any day.

The other actors in God-Za came to see Haruto as a second Reni, the public became aware of his abilities, and he had everything he could ever want.

Tasuku worked his way up to be the second top actor, thus making him and Haruto a duo. Despite what the public thought, though, he and Tasuku never did get along. They were constantly arguing, and neither of them could ever find a positive in the other’s behavior.

When Mankai Company was reborn, Haruto had no real reason to hate them. He disliked them because Reni disliked him, and that was that. They were no real threat to God-Za with their numbers and reputation, so he couldn’t really see the point in being so defensive.

Still, though, he participated in the act-offs and got more experience by doing so. When Tasuku left to join God-Za, it felt more like a breath of fresh air than a betrayal.

For the next two years, Haruto continued to work as the top actor of God-Za. He saw Mankai Company finally grow to be a formidable opponent, and he quickly began to realize that their rivalry did more bad than good. Still, though, he continued to work as Reni’s right-hand man and continued to work towards completely overpowering Mankai.

It was his Mankai’s third year of being reborn that Haruto realized there were better ways to go about helping God-Za.

The moment Shifuto joined, he knocked Haruto out of his position as top actor and took it for himself. Except, as he did it, he showed no malice or interest in rivalry.

Shifuto followed Haruto around practically everywhere. He talked a lot, was way too optimistic and loose in front of Reni, and was much worse at acting than Haruto, but despite the constant headache he brought with his presence, he began to grow on Haruto.

Shifuto reminded him a lot of himself, back when he first moved to Tokyo. He was hopeful and a hard worker, constantly aiming to be better. It was oddly nostalgic.

Madoka was next to join their little group. He was a shy guy, and constantly seemed to be on guard, but he was a nice break from Shifuto’s chatter, so Haruto took what he could get.

When they first met, Haruto had no intention of hanging out with them again. And yet, the moment Shifuto invited him to lunch for a second time, he just couldn’t find it in himself to decline.

Sitting around bowls of croquette udon and talking like old friends, Haruto felt like it was Saturday night all over again, huddled around the TV with his parents.

When Haruto told them about his past, it felt refreshing. His reputation made him popular in Veludo way, sure, but nobody ever tried to talk to him for who he truly was. When Madoka and Shifuto didn’t turn him away, he realized that what he had been wanting for years wasn’t to be different. It was to be accepted for who he was.

After they learned about the plagiarism in their script, Haruto stepped up as the top actor and took responsibility for the situation. Even though God-Za lost in the end, for him, it felt more like a win than a loss. Throughout Haruto’s reach for success, he had forgotten what it was like to be himself again.

Once the act-off was over, he vowed to himself that he’d never lose that piece of him again.

When he turned and saw Shifuto’s proud smile, as well as Madoka’s look of pure relief and joy, Haruto remembered what his ma had told him, the night before her death.

_“I hope you can find it in yourself to understand that not everybody is bad. We’ve been through a lot, Genta, but it hasn’t all been bad. Go chase your dreams, but don’t forget that fame isn’t the only way to salvation.”_

For once in his life, Haruto understood what his ma had been trying to say. He could have all of the fans in the world, the biggest house in Tokyo, and the most money of anyone in Veludo way, but it could never guarantee him happiness.

Shifuto and Madoka might be able to, though.

Haruto held onto that hope that night, the night after, and the night after that, all the way through the years, and never let go of it.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed it! Again, please comment with either praise, advice, or both! As a writer, feedback is what keeps me going! If you want to see more of my works, please take a look at my account! If you want to see more of my works, shitposts, AND headcanons, please check out my tumblr! (@ xxxbookaholic)  
> Have a nice rest of your day/night!


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